Latin American Film Festival at Ali Center

In partnership with the University of Louisville’s Reel Latin America: The 23rd Latin America Film Festival, the Muhammad Ali Center will be screening eight films during the month of October in the Ali Center’s auditorium. All of the films are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

The line-up and film descriptions are as follows:

Saturday, October 8th at 4 p.m.

Todos Se Van/Everybody Leaves: Shot in Colombia (because the director didn’t get permission to film in Cuba) and featuring a cast consisting mostly of expatriate Cuban actors, Everybody Leaves is a celebration of freedom and a confrontation of the authoritarian Cuban regime of the 1980s, which led to one of the country’s worst economic crises. The film is based on the award-winning novel by Cuban writer Wendy Guerra.

Eight-year-old Nieve is the object of her parents’ custody battle. Her mother, Eva, is an artist who believes in the revolution and disagrees with censorship or authoritarianism. She is re-married to Dan, a Swede working on the construction of a nuclear plant. Nieve’s father Manuel is a playwright who sacrifices his artistic career to write government propaganda in a remote area of the country.

Through her diary entries, Nieve reveals intimate details of a turbulent family life while painting an authentic portrait of the social and political unrest in Cuba under the rule of Castro.

Saturday, October 8th at 7 p.m.

Ixcanul/Volcano: GUATEMALA’S OFFICIAL ENTRY TO THE ACADEMY AWARDS®

Maria, a 17-year-old Mayan girl, lives and works with her parents on a coffee plantation in the foothills of an active volcano in Guatemala.

An arranged marriage awaits her: her parents have promised her to Ignacio, the plantation overseer. But Maria doesn’t sit back and accept her destiny.

Pepe, a young coffee cutter who plans to migrate to the USA becomes her possible way out. Maria seduces Pepe in order to run away with him, but after promises and clandestine meetings, Pepe takes off, leaving her pregnant, alone and in disgrace. There’s no time to lose for Maria’s mother, who thinks abortion is the only solution. Yet despite her mother’s ancestral knowledge, the baby remains, “destined to live.”

But destiny has more in store for Maria: a snakebite forces them to leave immediately in search of a hospital. The modern world Maria has so dreamt about will save her life, but at what price…

Friday, October 21st at 7 p.m.

El Club: The Club is acclaimed director Pablo Larraín’s taut, blackly comic commentary on individual responsibility, organized religion and the combustible combination of the two.

In a secluded house in a small seaside town live four unrelated men and the woman who tends to the house and their needs. All former priests, they have been sent to this quiet exile to purge the sins of their pasts, the separation from their communities the worst form of punishment by the Church. They keep to a strict daily schedule devoid of all temptation and spontaneity, each moment a deliberate effort to atone for their wrongdoings.

Their fragile stability is disrupted by the arrival of an emissary from the Vatican who seeks to understand the effects of their isolation, and a newly disgraced housemate. Both bring with them the outside world from which the men have long been removed, and the secrets they had thought deeply buried.

Saturday October 22nd at 4 p.m.

Sal: La Pelicula: A film director obsessed with making a western decides to go to Northern Chile in search of a story for his screenplay. Being confused with another, a real adventure begins. Now he will have a good script... If he leaves alive The story of a man with no history. The journey of an author becoming his own character and his impossible return.

Saturday, October 22nd at 7 p.m. & Saturday, October 29th at 4 p.m.

Alma: Fernando and Alma have been married for 17 years. She has a mental disorder. She is bipolar. She kicks him out the house because she learns that he cannot deal with her illness anymore. When Alma meets a young Argentinean guy, Fernando realizes that he is still in love with his wife. But it is too late because she has gone to Buenos Aires. Fernando is determined to get her back and tries to convince her that they are soul mates.

Friday, October 28th at 7 p.m.

NN (Non Nomine): Peru’s submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, NN is a compelling drama that won filmmaker Héctor Gálvez the Best Director Award at the Cartagena Film Festival for this powerful, nuanced look at a country’s efforts to come to terms with a dark chapter in its history.

A group of forensic anthropologists digs up the corpses of eight people who disappeared without a trace 20 years ago during a violent political period in Peru. Among them, they find a ninth unidentified corpse. The only thing that can lead to the identity of the man is the vague photo of a smiling girl found in his shirt’s pocket.

Fidel, a thoughtful investigator fascinated by the case, struggles to maintain a scientific approach to his work when a lonely widow shows up convinced this NN (Non Nomine) is her disappeared husband. Should he conduct a thorough investigation that may leave the widow’s plea unanswered or grant her the closure she has been searching for decades?

Saturday, October 29th at 7 p.m.

Una Noche Sin Luna: URUGUAY’S OFFICIAL ENTRY TO THE ACADEMY AWARDS® – BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Up-and-coming Uruguayan director Germán Tejeira creates a moving, poignant, witty character study in his first feature film. On New Year’s Eve, three lonely characters travel to a small town in the Uruguayan countryside. Cesar, a divorced man, arrives at the town, where he will have dinner with his ex-wife’s new family in an attempt to win back his daughter’s love. Antonio, a small-time magician, is trying to get to the town to perform his routine at the community center, but his car breaks down. Stranded in the middle of the deserted road, he meets Laura, a woman working at the toll station. Miguel, a performer, prepares to sing at the community center’s New Year’s Eve party. By following their paths to the town, the characters have a chance to change their destinies.